Boost Thread Hanging on _endthreadex

Question

I think I am making a simple mistake, but since I noticed there are many boost experts here, I thought I would ask for help.

I am trying to use boost threads(1_40) on windows xp. The main program loads a dll, starts the thread like so (note this is not in a class, the static does not mean static to a class but private to the file).

static boost::thread network_thread;
static bool quit = false;
HANDLE quitEvent;

//some code omitted for clarity, ask if you think it would help
void network_start()
{
  HANDLE *waitHandles = (HANDLE*)malloc(3 * sizeof(HANDLE));
  waitHandles[0] = quitEvent;
  waitHandles[1] = recvEvent;
  waitHandles[2] = pendingEvent;
  do {
      //read network stuff, or quit event
      dwEvents =WaitForMultipleObjects(3, waitHandles, FALSE, timeout);
   } while (!quit)
}

DllClass::InitInstance() 
{
}

DllClass::ExportedFunction()
{
   network_thread = boost::thread(boost::bind<void>(network_start));
}


DllClass::ExitInstance()
{
  //signal quit (which works)
   quit = true;
   SetEvent(QuitEvent);
   //the following code is slightly verbose because I'm trying to figure out what's wrong
    try {
       if (network_thread.joinable() ) {
           network_thread.join();
         } else {
            TRACE("Too late!");
        }
   } catch (boost::thread_interrupted&) {
        TRACE("NET INTERRUPTED");
    }
}

The problem is that the main thread is hanging on the join, and the network thread is hanging at the end of _endthreadex. What am I misunderstanding?

Answer 1

You are not supposed to create/end threads in InitInstance/ExitInstance,

see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;142243 for more info. Also, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682583%28VS.85%29.aspx about DllMain in general.